Living on a farm is all about seasons especially when you want to make the most of the fertile soils of the North West Coast of Tasmania. This blog is a diary of growing, harvesting and preserving the produce of those soils just as I have been doing for the past 30 years. Come with me on my journey through the seasons. Maybe you will be inspired to grow and preserve your own too.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

It's been raining today so a good opportunity to stew up some of the apples which have been sitting in the fridge since I picked them. By bottling them in Fowlers Vacola jars, they will last for a long time, years even, so it is a very energy efficient way to preserve. There are 10 jars now waiting to cool down before they get put in the store room.

Yesterday I picked 10 green capsicums while weeding my way around the garden. That gave me a good opportunity to try one of the recipes I have been saving up. Actually I kept on weeding and my kitchen assistant Pico made the recipe instead. Roasted capsicums in oil. First roast the capsicums until you can peel the skin off (actually this wasn't possible to do so they ended up still with the skin on) then chop them up and put them in olive oil with some spices- coriander, peppercorns, garlic and bay leaves. We had to try them for lunch today. Tasted pretty good but it seems like a lot of capsicums to just make one jar.

And finally the Emmental that I made a few weeks ago has spent a week in the cheese fridge then 2 weeks in a warm room so that the bacteria in the cheese are able to multiply. The cheese swells up and now I have waxed it and put it in the cheese fridge to mature for a few months.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Last May I made a second wheel of Pyrenees Pepper cheese but haven't actually tried it until a few days ago. Now it is 11 months old and I think it is my best cheese ever. It is very crumbly and has a fantastic flavour - of similar quality to a Mersey Valley cheese from Tasmania, an aged cheddar. It is a slightly strange colour as the peppers leach a bit of pinkish/purple colour. I was so pleased with the outcome that I set to and have made another wheel this weekend. It is now drying on a board for a few days before I wax it.

the new

Also this weekend I picked my huge quince crop....6.....and so stewed them up with some apples and bottled them for another day.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The zucchini plants in the vege patch are looking like they are on their last legs although still producing a few giants. Last week I found a recipe for Zucchini (courgette) chutney in a library book so thought I would give it a go. It was a slightly unusual recipe in that the zucchini slices had to be salted for a couple of hours first before washing, drying then adding to the mix of onions, tomatoes, red wine and malt vinegar, sugar and cinnamon. It was meant to have grated orange rind in it as well but I left that until last as it meant going out in to the garden to get an orange, and then I forgot to do it.

After cooking it all down for a couple of hours it had thickened up and was ready to bottle. Ready to have with my lunch.

Also yesterday morning I made a loaf of Panettone bread ready for Easter. It is a really a Christmas bread but it is so delicious that I like to make it at Easter time too!This is the yeast version not the sourdough version which I made once before and which ended up being as solid as a brick!

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About Me

I live on a dairy farm in Flowerdale on the North West coast of Tasmania where I have a large vegetable and fruit garden. For many years I have been harvesting and preserving the produce of my garden to enjoy all year round. I'm always looking for new ideas from around the world to experiment with, as well as the tried and true standards.